SHRM released the 2007-2008 Workplace Trends List just in time for the economic crisis and many outsourcing trends are in line with the challenges HR professionals are facing today and in the future. Finding a background screening company with a sense for current and future HR needs will be one of them.

According to the list, HR professionals want customizable and “suite”-style products from background screening companies and other vendors. This includes outsourced applications rather than in-house software. HR no longer has the time to manage several different vendors and keeping up with administration duties limits the department’s resources.

With a new administration, there may be a plethora of changing laws. Regulations, data security, immigration compliance, and discrimination are all emerging issues that will need process refining. The rise in unemployment is forcing companies to streamline their unemployment claims and Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) processing as well.

With a slowing economy, HR has a higher responsibility for keeping the talent needed to make it through the rough waters ahead. Background screening is one area that can’t be sacrificed with increased regulation, rises in resume fraud, and risks of workplace crime.

Background screening companies that recognize these needs, as well as limited budgets in the coming year, will play a fundamental role in helping organizations stay compliant during this difficult time.

Pre-employ.com has refined its suite of services to include:

• Tax Credits and Incentives Consulting (including WOTC, WtW, and more)
• Unemployment claims management services
• Customized background screening and drug testing services
• I-9 compliance automation – E-Verify approved vendor
• Incoming employment and income verifications with revenue sharing
• Job board and applicant tracking system

For more information on the “suite” of Pre-employ.com background screening services, call 800-300-1821 or visit www.pre-employ.com.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Pre-employ.com is proud to announce its ranking among the top 14 firms in this year’s Workforce Management’s Hot List of Employment-Related Screening Providers.

Workforce Management recognizes the top employment screening firms each year to bring human resource (HR) professionals the best providers in the industry.  Pre-employ.com has a proven track record of customer satisfaction and innovative services that have driven its success.

To view full press release, click here…Workforce Employment Screening Hot List

For more information on Pre-employ.com’s employment screening services, call 800-300-1821 or visit www.pre-employ.com.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

The case of George Dittman, a former federal agent that pleaded guilty to falsifying the background check information of a federal employee, raises the question of whether or not any government agency should be conducting in-house background checks.

Dittman, an agent for the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, was responsible for conducting background checks for federal agencies and contractors to determine whether or not they qualified for security clearance. This is a scary thought considering the heightened level of security the country has been in since 9/11/01.

Relying on state and federal employees to conduct background checks is not as reliable as outsourcing to a company that specializes in background investigations and has no ties to the agency or company it is working for. Background check firms are objective and use procedures and technology that reduce human errors and deceptions.

The Office of Personnel Management and other federal and state agencies are better off outsourcing  previous employment verifications, hands-on county criminal searches, federal and state criminal searches, international criminal searches, license and degree verifications, and all the other investigations rather than depending on the ‘interview’ process and what one perceives and reports to be a good or bad recommendation.

The federal government may believe that hiring their own employees to perform background checks that are intended to protect our country is more reliable than looking to the outside; however, this case should represent the possibility that there are thousands of unqualified - and possibly unsafe - people working in high security government facilities.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!

Following the fund fraud cases of Tom Petters for the past few weeks leads businesses on Wall Street to a very hard reality: charm is not an indication of trust, it’s an illusion. As noted today in his home state’s Star Tribune, ‘a simple background check would have raised thickets of red flags.’ The effects of the fraud came just in time for the stock market decline and a strained economy.

Petters sits in jail for one of the most long-lived money laundering schemes in history.  As owner of Polariod and Sun Country Airlines as well as partners in several hedge funds and banks that never thought to conduct a background check on him, Petters’ scheme crushed a worldwide enterprise of star players in the marketplace.

Now his employees and partners are experiencing the worst of their nightmares: dissolving businesses and bankruptcies. Fortunately, some firms, like Bookbinder Capital Management, were smart enough to hire a background check firm to look into his past and present before investing in his faltering empire.

A lesson for all big and small business: don’t even think about risking your business to a big player who walks through the door with a portfolio of treasures without first investigating.  It’s people like Tom Petters that ultimately cause the decline in American prosperity.

As we are learning more and more every day, background checks are a necessity at every level of business and society. The Petters case didn’t just affect the big moguls, it trickled down to the employee that struggles every day to support a family. And, in this economy, what a time it is to lose a job.

*We welcome relevant comments and questions from consumers, experts, and human resources professionals. Please do not submit comments with advertisements as they will not be posted publicly. Thanks for visiting our blog!